Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh
Shwetank Tripathi, a dairy farmer has lost eight out of his 10 milch cattle to foot and mouth disease (FMD) in the last three months. He is afraid of losing more animals to this deadly infection, which is a preventable disease provided the cattle are vaccinated on time. The fatality rate of the infected animals is only five per cent.
“My animals were not vaccinated against the khurpaka-muhpaka [a local name for FMD] infection. Even last year, the animals were not vaccinated as everybody was engrossed with Corona,” Tripathi, a resident of Sikoha village in Sitapur’s Reusa block, told Gaon Connection. “I have lost almost five lakh rupees due to the deaths of these animals. I hope the other animals get vaccinated without further delay,” said the worried farmer, who lives about 90 kilometres from Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.
Tripathi is not alone in his grievance. When Gaon Connection talked to the dairy farmers and veterinary officials in other districts of the state, it was found that the vaccination of cattle has gone for a toss since the past year. No supply of the FMD vaccine has been made for almost a year now. Ideally, as per the National Dairy Development Board, cattle need to be administered the FMD vaccine once every six months.
Gaon Connection spoke with the veterinary officials in Sitapur, Barabanki, Unnao, Lakhimpur Kheri and Mirzapur districts of the state and they all admitted that they had not received the FMD vaccines for almost a year now.
Lack of FMD vaccination has translated into an outbreak of the foot and mouth disease in some districts of the state. The outbreak is more significant in the western region of Uttar Pradesh where Meerut and Badaun districts have officially reported the FMD outbreak.
As per a Right to Information (RTI) query answered by the Chief Veterinary Officer of Meerut on April 13, 2021, a total of 36 villages in the district reported the FMD outbreak.
Also, in a separate RTI answered by the Animal Husbandry Department on June 23, 2021, it was revealed that 427 animals in Meerut while 167 animals in Badaun were found to be infected with FMD.
National-level programme for FMD eradication
In September, 2019, the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying launched a scheme by the name ‘National Animal Disease Control Programme for FMD and Brucellosis’ with a financial outlay of Rs 13,343.00 crore (13.343 billion) for five years (2019-20 to 2023-24).
The scheme aimed at vaccinating 100 per cent of the cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig population across the country against FMD and brucellosis (a bacterial infection).
FMD disease is a ‘severe, highly contagious viral disease of livestock that has a significant economic impact’. It is characterised by fever and blister-like sores on the tongue and lips, in the mouth, on the teats and between the hooves of the animals.
According to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), FMD disease causes severe production losses, and while the majority of affected animals recover, the disease often leaves them weakened and debilitated. It is not readily transmissible to humans and is not a public health risk.
The national scheme was launched in 2019 to prevent ‘loss of Rs 50,000 crore to the Government exchequer and also to increase the economic output of farmers’.
“The mission mode approach for eradication of these diseases is the biggest step any country of the world has ever taken either for human or animal vaccination programmes to control any disease,” the statement released by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) stated on December 31, 2019.
But where is the FMD vaccine?
Ram Gopal Sharma, a cattle rearer from Sitapur’s Bhawanipur village in Behta block, too has lost his cattle to FMD.
“I had 24 cows. Two of them died due to khurpaka. As the infection began to spread amongst other cows, I sold all my cattle except two cows for personal use. The cows were vaccinated once last year but haven’t been vaccinated ever since, Sharma told Gaon Connection.
The rainy season provides optimum conditions for a wide range of infections in animals. The cattle in the villages need timely vaccination against the foot and mouth disease, which is locally known as ‘muh paka’ and ‘khur paka’. But, it’s been almost a year now and the cattle have not been vaccinated. Farmers are losing their cattle and suffering huge losses.
When Gaon Connection approached the dairy farmers in Meerut, where the FMD outbreak was reported in April this year, they refused to comment on the situation citing fears of boycott by the cattle traders in the area.
Haven’t received the FMD vaccine, say district officials
When Gaon Connection sought Sitapur’s chief veterinary officer’s (CVO) reaction to lack of FMD vaccination in the district, he informed that the district is yet to receive the said vaccine. “There are 1,154,000 cattle in the district out of which 800,000 are milch (milk producing) but we have received merely 53,000 jabs for galghotu (Hemorrhagic septicemia) disease. We haven’t received a single dose of FMD so far,” Prabhat Kumar Singh told Gaon Connection.
Also, deputy veterinary officer of Sitapur, Manav, told Gaon Connection that the FMD vaccination was last administered in the district in November 2020. “There has not been FMD vaccination ever since,” he added.
In Unnao district, the chief veterinary officer informed Gaon Connection that the last time the cattle were vaccinated against the FMD was in September 2020. “We will begin vaccinating the animals against FMD in September this year after we receive the vaccine doses,” Pramod Kumar Singh told Gaon Connection.
Meanwhile, the chief veterinary officer from Barabanki agreed with Singh’s information and stated that FMD vaccine was last administered in the district in September last year. “The FMD vaccine is not available at present,” Markandey Pandey told Gaon Connection.
The shortage of these vaccines exists in Sitapur’s neighbouring district of Lakhimpur Kheri as well.
Lakhimpur’s deputy veterinary officer Saket Yadav informed Gaon Connection that the cattle in the district received one dose of FMD vaccine last year but the other dose was missed due to COVID19-related supply issues.
“The FMD vaccine is not available this year as well. We will vaccinate the cattle the moment we begin to receive the supplies. We are presently vaccinating the animals against galghotu,” he said.
Meanwhile in Mirzapur district, which is reeling under the damage caused by the floods, the chief veterinary officer informed that the district has received 290,000 vials of galghotu disease but the vaccine for FMD is still not available.
“Twelve hundred doses of the vaccine have been sent at every regional veterinary centre. But we are yet to receive the vials for FMD,” Vivekanand Patel told Gaon Connection.
Sub-standard FMD vaccine to be blamed?
In a letter written to the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh on November 20, 2020, Upamanyu Basu, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying informed that the FMD vaccines previously supplied to these states have failed the quality test and instructed these states to withhold their vaccination exercise.
“The results of the quality quality control test for some of the samples of FMD vaccines have been received from the Head, Division of Biological Standardarisation, ICAR-IVRI wherefrom it is found that three batches of the FMD vaccine manufactured by Indian Immunologicals Ltd, Hyderabad and supplied by NAFED to various states, including your state did not comply with the quality parameters stipulated in the tender for procurement,” Basu mentioned in the letter.
“I therefore request you to kindly withhold vaccination/revaccinate if vaccination is already done,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh, FMD vaccination seems to be going on. The Animal Husbandry and Dairy department of Satna district in Madhya Pradesh told Gaon Connection that the district has vaccinated ‘99 per cent’ of the animals against FMD.
“There are a total of 82,4060 cattle in Satna. We began a campaign on August 1, 2020 to vaccinate 90 per cent of the animals in the district. We have vaccinated almost 99 per cent of the animals by now,” Mahendra Kumar Verma, assistant manager of the veterinary hospital in Satna, told Gaon Connection.
With inputs from Brijendra Dubey in Mirzapur, Sachin Tulsa Tripathi in Satna, Sumit Yadav in Unnao, and Virendra Singh in Barabanki.